The present invention generally relates to notification in a healthcare environment. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for a predictive notification engine.
Medical devices include devices such as physiological monitors, infusion pumps, ventilators, oximeters, fetal monitors, lab instruments, portable vitals measuring equipment, warmers, and dialysis machines. Medical devices are important to the practice of modern medicine. For example, in a hospital intensive care unit (ICU), a variety of medical devices may surround each patient, each performing an important task. A patient connected to one or more vital-signs monitors may also be receiving drugs or other fluids under the control of an infusion pump, for example. In some cases, a patient may have some of their physiological processes supported by medical devices such as ventilators.
Medical devices are able to provide data for parameters. Certain medical devices may provide a stream or sequence of values (data) for one or more parameters. For example, an electrocardiogram may provide a stream of values for the heart rate parameter, each value provided once per second or as a waveform. The parameter value may be provided simply as a data value on a wire or communicated using a simple, proprietary protocol, for example.
Parameter data from a medical device is distinct from messages from clinical applications in an information system. As discussed above, parameter data is a value (or set of values) provided from a medical device corresponding to a particular parameter. Often, the parameter data may be communicated simply as a value, without additional information or context, using a wire protocol or other similar mechanism. In contrast, messages are packages of higher-level information, typically generated by software applications in a healthcare information system. For example, a pharmacy system may provide a message to a medication management application including details such as patient identifier, medication names, and dosage rates. As another example, a clinical decision support system may receive message from an order entry system to monitor for drug interactions. Messages may be communicated using protocols such as HL7.
Current systems allow a healthcare provider to be notified when a parameter value changes in a particular way. That is, when an event occurs, a notification is generated. For example, if a ventilator detects that it has come unplugged, a notification, such as an alarm tone or light, may be desired. As another example, if a heart rate drops below a threshold, a notification is generated.
In current systems, notification mechanisms are hard-coded to the medical devices and do not allow for the creation of new notifications based on multiple parameters. In addition, current systems do not allow for creating notifications based on information gathered from separate sources. Further, as discussed above, current systems react only to events that have already occurred.